Any BT engineers here?

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 17:05

Need some info, The previous owner of my flat had taken the bt sockets off the walls as he had telewest installed, I'm looking to get ADSL from BE in a few months time so phoned BT to ask about getting a master socket installed >>£125 :eek:

I've noticed next to my fuse box there is what appears to be phone wireing coming into the flat from under the floor(i'm on the ground floor)
The wires are inside cable are....
Blue with White Bands
Orange with White Bands
White with Orange Bands
White with Blue Bands

If I buy and wire in a socket could BT check the line to see if it's live at the socket end rather than pay for them to come and do the same thing?

Any advice would be great

Burnsy2023 · 22 May 2007 at 17:06

iirc, you're not allowed to install or tamper with a master socket, so I doubt BT will ever test it for you.

Burnsy

monkeysmith · 22 May 2007 at 17:08

I was in the same situation, moved into a newly renovated flat and they hadn't installed the master socket. I popped down to B&Q and stuck a normal socket on, then rang them up to connect, they had to send an engineer out to check the line, which they did and was connected, no costs.

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 17:11

monkeysmith said:
I was in the same situation, moved into a newly renovated flat and they hadn't installed the master socket. I popped down to B&Q and stuck a normal socket on, then rang them up to connect, they had to send an engineer out to check the line, which they did and was connected, no costs.

Cheers, were the wires the same as the ones I have? I assume It's an old BT line

Dr_Evil · 22 May 2007 at 17:12

I'd just blame the previous owner and demand BT to fix it in order for your line to work, free of charge ofcourse for yourself.

Jimmi · 22 May 2007 at 17:19

hail hail said:
Cheers, were the wires the same as the ones I have? I assume It's an old BT line

A telephony connection would consist of the colour cables you have mentioned previously

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 17:21

Dr_Evil said:
I'd just blame the previous owner and demand BT to fix it in order for your line to work, free of charge ofcourse for yourself.

Thats what I tried but they said it would be classed as a new connection

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 17:22

Jimmi said:
A telephony connection would consist of the colour cables you have mentioned previously

Ta much

Dandle · 22 May 2007 at 18:30

Jimmi said:
A telephony connection would consist of the colour cables you have mentioned previously

That would be the wiring inside the house though on the owners side. The line coming into the house from BT is normally 1 plain white, 1 plain green, 1 plain black, 1 plain white cable and three yellow steel cables to give it the strength to support it from the pole to your house. The orange and white are the main phone line. With orange being B and white being A.

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 19:14

Dandle said:
That would be the wiring inside the house though on the owners side. The line coming into the house from BT is normally 1 plain white, 1 plain green, 1 plain black, 1 plain white cable and three yellow steel cables to give it the strength to support it from the pole to your house. The orange and white are the main phone line. With orange being B and white being A.

so what wires should be plugged into the back of the master socket, the green/black/white and 3 yellow or the orange/white?

Dandle · 22 May 2007 at 19:26

hail hail said:
so what wires should be plugged into the back of the master socket, the green/black/white and 3 yellow or the orange/white?

The back of the master socket has three screw terminals A, B and E(i think its E anyway but its not used so doesnt matter). The White wire goes to A and the Orange wire goes to B(the other wires arent used unless you have a second line. The master socket is then put back onto the box, the faceplate then has the house wiring connected to it. when the face plate is installed it will connect to the master socket and the phone wiring is then connected to the bt line.

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 19:35

ahhh that makes sense, cheers for the help

hyster · 22 May 2007 at 19:55

I just bought a Master NTE5 Linebox ADSL Adaptor from a company called Clarity Uk. I replaced the outer part of the master socket with this to get a better connection as I was regrading to adsl max.

It worked very well, it splits the phone and adsl parts and does all the filtering at the master socket so no need for any micofilters, you would need to have the back half of the master though, Its the one with the test socket behind the cover.

As has already been said you cant mess with the back half of the master socket or any wiring behind it, thats BT's, the front part and any extentions and wiring between are yours to play with.

Don't know if any of this helps but thought I would pass it on anyway.

Dandle · 22 May 2007 at 20:03

I bought an NTE2005 socket this week to thinking I could have either all sockets filtered or only its socket filtered. Now I fiind out after opening it that it filters all sockets and is useless for me now. Waste of a tenner that was.lol

Burnsy2023 · 22 May 2007 at 20:12

Also bare in mind that if you start fiddling with the cable and for some reason you get a call, there will be 50V going through the live. It's not a nice feeling to find out through chance

Burnsy

Avalon · 22 May 2007 at 20:17

Right, find out from BT if your specific property has had an install previously. If it's been converted from one house to flats etc the answer may be no, as such they are unlikley switch you on without an engineer checking it and probably charging you. You may find they re-ran the old line somwhere else (eg flat above) and you just have dead wire

BTW that's the exact reason I went to Cable in the first place, £25 and they'll install whatever you want, BT = £££

Dandle · 22 May 2007 at 20:18

burnsy2023 said:
Also bare in mind that if you start fiddling with the cable and for some reason you get a call, there will be 50V going through the live. It's not a nice feeling to find out through chance

Burnsy

Been there, done that

. Once you know you can do it with out touching the wires though.

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 20:21

thanks, I dont have any sockets as the guy before me removed them. All I have is the bare wire coming from under the floor, these are Blue with White Bands, Orange with White Bands, White with Orange Bands and White with Blue Bands.

Worst case is it wont work and i'll stick to virgin :mad:

If BT asks it was like that when I moved in

Dandle · 22 May 2007 at 20:24

hail hail said:
thanks, I dont have any sockets as the guy before me removed them. All I have is the bare wire coming from under the floor, these are Blue with White Bands, Orange with White Bands, White with Orange Bands and White with Blue Bands.

Worst case is it wont work and i'll stick to virgin If BT asks it was like that when I moved in

That is your internal wiring you need to find the wires with solid colours. Can you see a phone cable going to you house? Maybe you can trace it along the outside to see where it enters.

It would be worth giving bt a call if you cant find the cable as they may fit your line for free if they are after custom.

EDIT:forgot it was a flat DOH.

~Stevief~ · 22 May 2007 at 20:40

will check the wires when I'm home from work, They do appear to come from under the floor through some condute(sp) to a round metal junction box, the wires are split in a connector block and this is where the coloured wires are.